Sentient Chamber

Cultural Programs of the National Academy of Sciences

Washington, D.C. - 2015

Located within the National Academy of Sciences in Washington,
DC, Sentient Chamber is a free-standing pavilion that
combines three new systems of structure, electronics and software
controls. This experimental architecture and sculpture installation
acts as a test-bed for ongoing research that combines the disciplines
of architecture and visual art, computer science and engineering,
and synthetic biology.

The new structural system is organized by a hybrid triangular
flexible space-grid, stiffened by expanded-mesh hexapods that
support telescoping posts and spires contacting the floor and
ceiling for stability. This structure offers minimal material
consumption, achieved through highly efficient advanced manufacturing
employing laser machining and thermal forming of expanded meshwork.
Tensegrity coupling is featured, employing metal rod cores that
stabilize the system surrounded by expanded meshwork hyperbolic
shells that provide alternating tensile and compressive support.

Electronic controls employ powerful microcontrollers, expanded
by custom circuitry for local communications, power control and
sensor feedback. Proprioreception is a particular feature of this
new system. Arrayed electronically controlled acoustic and kinetic
mechanisms are accompanied by sensors that provide internal feedback
to the control system, supporting machine learning. In turn, these
nested arrays are supported by a central computer configured with
three coupled control softwares, providing a test-bed capable of
orchestrating pre-scripted behaviours, relationships between
components, and learning functions. Currently under development
is a new curiosity-based learning system. The system offers
interactions with viewers that include spatially imaged sound,
light, vibration, and concentrated movement mechanisms, each
supported in overlapping nested arrays housed within the hybrid
structural system.

Sentient Chamber was created in collaboration
with the Living Architecture Systems Group, a partnership
of architects, engineers, scientists, and artists from
Canada, the U.S., and Europe currently led by University
of Waterloo collaborators Philip Beesley, Dana Kulic, and
Rob Gorbet. Sentient Chamber is exhibited at the
National Academy of Sciences Building on the Washington
Mall from November 2, 2015 - May 31, 2016. The exhibition
is organized by the Cultural Programs of the National Academy
of Sciences (CPNAS) and the National Academies Keck Futures
Initiative (NAKFI), with support from Ralph J. and Carol M.
Cicerone and with the assistance of The Catholic University
of America School of Architecture and Planning and Virginia
Tech School of Architecture + Design.